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Poll: Kids pick Obama over Romney

President Obama has long enjoyed strong support from young Americans, and it turns out that even the ones who are too young to vote are in his corner.

Mr. Obama was declared the winner Tuesday in the Scholastic Student Vote, a promotion that saw almost 250,000 children cast unofficial votes in this year’s presidential race and choose the president over Republican challenger Mitt Romney, 51 percent to 45 percent.

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Scholastic, a children’s book publisher, has conducted a student mock vote in every presidential election since 1940, and students have correctly picked the winner in every year other than 1948 — when Harry Truman lodged his famous upset over Thomas Dewey — and 1960, when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon.

This year’s poll found that students prefer Mr. Obama in several swing states, including Florida and Ohio where he won by 9 and 7 percentage points respectively.

The president also won Colorado and Nevada by double-digit margins that are unlikely to be repeated in the real election on Nov. 6, while Mr. Romney captured Virginia by 3 points.

Students had from Aug. 15 to last Wednesday to cast online or paper ballots in the mock vote.